PHOENIX--- Man's best friend saved his own best friend in North Phoenix this week.

An eight-year-old chocolate lab jumped in when a pit bull attacked his companion, a smaller dog named Reese.

The Epperson family lives near Interstate 17 and Bell Road, and had a back gate open to move some equipment out over the weekend. Lea Epperson says an off-leash pit bull ran through the gate, and toward Reese.

"Travis ran in, cut the dog off, and it was on," Lea said. Her husband eventually pulled the pit bull off Travis. His wounds required dozens of stitches.

"It's heartbreaking because he doesn't know why this happened. I've cried a few tears," Lea said. Vet bills crossed $2,000, and they're looking for the owner of the pit bull, who was walking his dog off-leash.

Family members are grateful that Travis should make a full recovery, and they give him credit for saving his pal's life. "Without Travis, Reese wouldn't have made it," she said.